1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to an improved tentless continuous mailer assembly and a method of fabricating a tentless continuous mailer assembly.
It has been known to manufacture continuous mailer assemblies and similar business forms of multiple plies, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,095,695 and 4,108,352 and to fold these assemblies into a stack for shipment purposes. In many cases, when a continuous assembly of this nature is being manufactured, the various plies are brought together and secured to each other via glues or adhesives which set at some point after bringing of the plies together. A final set of the adhesive or glue does not take place until some time after the assembly has been folded into a stack. As a result, the set adhesive or glue tends to retain the plies in a fixed condition relative to each other so that when the assembly is folded out from a stack, a peak or "tent" appears at the folds of the assemblies where the various plies are secured together.
"Tenting" presents a problem in the unfolded condition of a continuous assembly of the above type since automated equipment which process the assembly usually has pin wheels which register in pin holes along the side edges of the assembly in order to pass the assembly through the equipment. If a "tent" occurs in the assembly, registration of the pins in the sides of the assembly may not always occur. It is then possible for the assembly to lift away from the automatic equipment causing a jamming. In addition, "tenting" may cause a pick-up of the edges of the assembly plies about the tent to such an extent that the assembly can be torn by the automated equipment.
The tenting can also catch on the ink ribbon or the hammer slots or the type itself of the automatic equipment causing a jamming. The tenting can also cause a sufficient buildup of thickness so that equipment sensors will cause the equipment to stop since it senses that the forms are too thick to be processed.
2. Prior Art
Various attempts have been made to eliminate "tenting" from continuous business forms and assemblies. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,352 plies of material are held together via glue and in the intermediate plies are completely severed along adjacent edges to eliminate a bend in the intermediate ply at the fold of the assembly. The front and back plies, however are not completely severed. Thus, the connecting portions between adjacent sections of each of the front and back plies may still cause a tenting effect to occur.
In my earlier patent U.S. 4,492,334, a continuous mailer assembly was provided with mailer units in which one of the back or front plies was either completely severed from the adjacent ply or connected to the adjacent ply by a weak hinge connection. This somewhat minimized tenting but did not fully eliminate the difficulties of tenting because severing did not always occur when manufacturing due to the fact that a perforation had to fall exactly in line with a previously laid down perforation.
An object of the invention is to provide a continuous mailer assembly which is able to lay flat without tenting.
It is another object of the invention to provide a simple method of forming a continuous mailer assembly which is able to lay flat without tenting when folded out.
It is another object of the invention to provide a simple technique of fabricating a tentless continuous mailer assembly that does not have to rely on a previously laid down perforation to line up with a subsequent perforation.